Intel Launches First Eighth-Generation Core Processors, Paving Way For Quad-Core 13-Inch MacBook Pro

[travelsheep]

Will refresh when I'm rich. Looking at a true 80 core, 5TB RAM system with 1 liquid-metal shape-changing port
(as always something missing, Apple style).

 

[ugru]

No LPDDR4 support sucks.

And no GT3e (Iris) graphics will mean a lagging UI, very much like the current 15" when running on iGPU.
A quad core 13" like this will be pretty useless, incapable to power properly two 4k external display or a 5K one....

 

[elmaco]

"Intel also boasted that its eighth-generation Core processors are up to twice as fast as its equivalent five-year-old Ivy Bridge chips."

Can't say I am impressed. In 1994 I could buy a Pentium 90 Mhz with 0.09 Gflops and 1999 I could buy a Pentium III 500 Mhz with 1 Gflops. That's more than ten times as fast in five years.

 

[manu chao]

These are revised Kaby Lake chips (Kaby Lake R). Here’s the breakdown for mobile:

Y (5W, 2 cores) = Cannonlake
U (15W/28W, 4 cores) = Kaby Lake R
H (45W, 6 cores) = Coffee Lake

However, they are all 8th generation.

If their goal was to maximally confuse people, they've achieved it.

 

[Appleaker]

This doesn't seem like the next 13" MBP process to me. The clock speed is low and they don't have the Iris GPUs. Possible for a Mac mini or to get extra life out of a 15" but I don't see this for the 13" MBPs. That said, those procs could still be in development as the higher end GPUs take longer to pack into the same space.

Yes many are hoping for a dGPU stead of iGPU if Intel doesn’t offer Iris due to limitations. The point is not that the specific ones being released today are suitable, but that the other 15W/28W ones will, resulting in a quad-core MacBook Pro 13”. Clock speed is low to compensate for the extra cores, but we will still see them in the 13” MacBook Pros.

 

[magbarn]

This doesn't seem like the next 13" MBP process to me. The clock speed is low and they don't have the Iris GPUs. Possible for a Mac mini or to get extra life out of a 15" but I don't see this for the 13" MBPs. That said, those procs could still be in development as the higher end GPUs take longer to pack into the same space.

You hit the nail on the head, it's more likely the MBP 15 is more likely to get the hexacore than the MBP 13 getting a quad unless Intel gets it act together.

 

[Appleaker]

Hear me out: when the next Mac Pro is finally here, they'll rename the mini to: Mac. With the iPhone and iPhone Pro, there entire line will have Pro and regular variants.

The are saving the mini for this

It’s possible and would make sense, they would need to invest heavily in a new model and possibly new form factor, and both of those have been speculated to be in the works. I still do not believe the 2017 anniversary model will be called the “iPhone Pro”.

 

[CWallace]

Intel marketing's ability to make even the simplest things absolutely inscrutable never ceases to amaze me. Would it have killed them to have one "lake" for the eighth generation?

AMD's Ryzen platform looks like it could provide real competition to Intel's Core series so I think Intel is scrambling a bit to get new stuff into the pipeline in a mix of pre-emptive and pro-active response.

I believe cannonlake is only for Y series? So likely 9th gen Icelake for the H series chips (the ones for which a 32gb system makes sense) unless the imminent refresh to coffee lake does end up supporting it.

Well in theory Cannonlake is supposed to scale to 95W (so it could be used from the MacBook to the iMac), but who knows with Intel. I expect what is actually released as Cannonlake will depend on how successful the 10nm process is at launch and then we'll see either "Cannonlake-Refresh" or Icelake CPUs once the process is fully matured.

 

[Appleaker]

No LPDDR4 support sucks.

And no GT3e (Iris) graphics will mean a lagging UI, very much like the current 15" when running on iGPU.
A quad core 13" like this will be pretty useless, incapable to power properly two 4k external display or a 5K one....

You hit the nail on the head, it's more likely the MBP 15 is more likely to get the hexacore than the MBP 13 getting a quad unless Intel gets it act together.

Hold on, you’ve only seen 4 models, there are more to come including 28W and likely ones with GT3e graphics. The ones with GT3e aren’t usually the first ones announce and released. Even if certain limitations prevent Iris graphics in all models, a low power dGPU could be used with the 15W chips. The only way the 13” wouldn’t getting quad-cores is if they leave a 7th gen processor in it.

 

[AZ63]

I don't follow the chipsets close enough to know but didn't Intel used to make high-end chips, desktop chips, and mobile chips? Now it seems they make mobile chips for everything and high-end Xeon chips. Why does a desktop Mac or PC that doesn't run off a battery need a chip that is super power efficient? Are desktop users having to put up with slow to no growth in chipset advances because the market is now more mobile-based so Intel has stopped creating more power hungry desktop chipsets?

 

[CWallace]

I don't follow the chipsets close enough to know but didn't Intel used to make high-end chips, desktop chips, and mobile chips? Now it seems they make mobile chips for everything and high-end Xeon chips. Why does a desktop Mac or PC that doesn't run off a battery need a chip that is super power efficient? Are desktop users having to put up with slow to no growth in chipset advances because the market is now more mobile-based so Intel has stopped creating more power hungry desktop chipsets?

Intel still makes CPUs for all levels of mobile and desktop computer. The iMac, for example, can be configured with i7's running up to 4.5GHz and TDPs around 90 watts. Intel also has the i9 series for desktops coming, with up to 18 cores and TDPs near 170 watts.

 

[chucker23n1]

I don't follow the chipsets close enough to know but didn't Intel used to make high-end chips, desktop chips, and mobile chips? Now it seems they make mobile chips for everything and high-end Xeon chips.

This isn't a complete line-up.

Kaby Lake exists in configurations ranging from 4.5 W to 112 W, and high-end server stuff will eventually come that will push that to probably around 165 W.

Why does a desktop Mac or PC that doesn't run off a battery need a chip that is super power efficient?

It doesn't.

Are desktop users having to put up with slow to no growth in chipset advances because the market is now more mobile-based so Intel has stopped creating more power hungry desktop chipsets?

No, high-power desktop chipsets continue to exist, but it certainly is an increasingly uninteresting market segment.

 

[Ener Ji]

That will not happen until Cannonlake arrives as that will be the first one to support LPDDR4 without requiring a separate RAM controller.

So will Coffee Lake even support LPDDR4 ram/GT3e graphics? I'm guessing in the future, maybe next year?

Because if they don't, Apple might just go straight to Cannonlake. But if I was to guess I wanna say Cannonlake will be for just the MacBook, not Pros.

No. Integrated LPDDR4 support will not arrive until Cannonlake.

AMD's Ryzen platform looks like it could provide real competition to Intel's Core series so I think Intel is scrambling a bit to get new stuff into the pipeline in a mix of pre-emptive and pro-active response.

Well in theory Cannonlake is supposed to scale to 95W (so it could be used from the MacBook to the iMac), but who knows with Intel. I expect what is actually released as Cannonlake will depend on how successful the 10nm process is at launch and then we'll see either "Cannonlake-Refresh" or Icelake CPUs once the process is fully matured.

I believe you are mistaken. It is Ice Lake (late 2018 or 2019) which is supposed to get support for >16GB low-power RAM. There is a small chance Coffee Lake might get it (Intel hasn't confirmed one way or the other), but it's unlikely to come to Cannon Lake as Cannon Lake refers to ultra-mobile processors that are unlikely to be paired with so much RAM.

It's very confusing, but the planned 8th gen lineup appears to consist of:
Cannon Lake: Ultra Mobile processors
Kaby Lake refresh: The just announced 15W and 28W processors
Coffee Lake: The 35w and higher processors

 

[killermike2178]

Deleted.

 

[tedthedev]

You're not going to see an updated Mac mini, for one simple reason.

The Mac mini occupied the $499 - $1299 price point. The main reason Apple hasn't updated the Mac mini in so long is because it wants to push Mac users who are looking to spend that amount of money over to an iPad/iPad Pro. Apple has doubled down on the iPad and pulled out all the stops to stem the steady decline in sales, and with the slight bump they got this last quarter, seem to have finally moved the needle, if only slightly.

Apple clearly sees that price point as needed to be vacant on the Mac so they can goose the iPad sales.

So I wouldn't hold my breath for an updated Mac mini.

 

[magbarn]

Hold on, you’ve only seen 4 models, there are more to come including 28W and likely ones with GT3e graphics. The ones with GT3e aren’t usually the first ones announce and released. Even if certain limitations prevent Iris graphics in all models, a low power dGPU could be used with the 15W chips. The only way the 13” wouldn’t getting quad-cores is if they leave a 7th gen processor in it.

Or Apple may just choose not to implement a quad. Apple had this choice 5 years ago with Ivy Bridge when a low powered quad was offered in the same TDP as the dual core but Apple chose not to use it whilst PC manufacturers used it in a limited basis. And all Ivy Bridge had the HD4000 which was the highest end Intel iGPU at the time...

 

[chucker23n1]

You're not going to see an updated Mac mini, for one simple reason.

The Mac mini occupied the $499 - $1299 price point. The main reason Apple hasn't updated the Mac mini in so long is because it wants to push Mac users who are looking to spend that amount of money over to an iPad/iPad Pro. Apple has doubled down on the iPad and pulled out all the stops to stem the steady decline in sales, and with the slight bump they got this last quarter, seem to have finally moved the needle, if only slightly.

So, two things.

One, if that's true, it makes no sense for them to launch the 12-inch Retina MacBook, or the 13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar. Those will eventually move to around $999-1299, competing with the iPad Pro.

Two, while there's clearly some overlap between a tablet with keyboard accessory and a laptop, surely there's virtually no overlap whatsoever between a tablet and a desktop.

 

[ugru]

Even if certain limitations prevent Iris graphics in all models, a low power dGPU could be used with the 15W chips.

Will never happen.

Apple will continue to release even more uselessly thin Macbooks. So: no dGPU for 13" and even lower tier dGPU for 15". eGPU is the way ahead for them...

Our only hope for a decent 13" without emoji bar is a 15W quad core chip with GT3e

 

[SSD-GUY]

We are about to have DDR5, PCIe 5.0 while the mobile devices already use LPDDR4x and Intel call this an update that still stuck with LPDDR3?
And their comparison is something from 5yrs ago? With what courage do they charge this much of money for this kind of Stagnant evolution. Atleast, support the standards.

I don't wanna even blame Intel anymore. I wanna ask, is Apple just gonna sit idle? All that proprietory OS, motherboard, MacAppStore for nothing?

These aren't going to use DDR4? Also, isn't PCI 4.0 not even out yet? If that's correct, then I get why PCI 5.0 isn't available, but DDR 4 is just plain nitpicking on Intel's part

 

[CWallace]

I believe you are mistaken. It is Ice Lake (late 2018 or 2019) which is supposed to get support for >16GB low-power RAM. There is a small chance Coffee Lake might get it (Intel hasn't confirmed one way or the other), but it's unlikely to come to Cannon Lake as Cannon Lake refers to ultra-mobile processors that are unlikely to be paired with so much RAM.

Malcolm Owen at AppleInsider mentioned that if Apple adopts Cannonlake, they could offer 32GB in the MBP and at least early-on Cannonlake was to be offered in desktop form-factors with TDPs in the 90W range (equivalent to the i5-7600 and i7-7700 used in the current 5K iMac). However, Intel has been changing their roadmaps on a regular basis, so who knows what will really ship in what process.

 

[NinjaHERO]

Sounds great. Now build a MBP without that touchbar and we're in business. And to be clear, by no touchbar I don't mean also make the chips slower and remove two of the ports. The exact same high end MBP, without the touchbar please. Thanks Apple.

 

[Marx55]

TDP?

 

[Appleaker]

Or Apple may just choose not to implement a quad. Apple had this choice 5 years ago with Ivy Bridge when a low powered quad was offered in the same TDP as the dual core but Apple chose not to use it whilst PC manufacturers used it in a limited basis. And all Ivy Bridge had the HD4000 which was the highest end Intel iGPU at the time...

No. They’ve had the opportunity in the past but that has been different, in the past it has been i7, and more expensive due to being a different model from the other ones used. Going with the same line made sense, not to mention using a quad-core Could have impacted 15” sales. But now, the whole line is being upped to quad-core, and they are all the successors to the current processors used, not individual processors with the same TDP. Furthermore, the 15” will still have an edge as it will feature 6-core processors along with the current benefits.

 

[chucker23n1]

TDP?

15 W.
[doublepost=1503351814][/doublepost]

But now, the whole line is being upped to quad-core,

Do we know this for a fact? This first batch doesn't have any parts suitable for MacBook Pros.

 

[Appleaker]

Sounds great. Now build a MBP without that touchbar and we're in business. And to be clear, by no touchbar I don't mean also make the chips slower and remove two of the ports. The exact same high end MBP, without the touchbar please. Thanks Apple.

I wouldn’t mind keeping the touch bar, but also having the function row. The touch bar is not a valid replacement for a professional computer, but it could be for a consumer computer. They put it in the wrong notebook first.